Summer Update

In December 2007 Steve and 5 of our church leaders set out on a 10-day trip to the Amazon. These men were hand-picked by Temple Baptist’s leadership, believing they had the greatest potential for impact.

These expectations were met and greatly exceeded as one pastor, three Sunday School teachers, and a military leader all returned with GREAT, entertaining, and moving stories of God’s care and provision throughout their trip.

Although this team was already missions-minded and well-traveled, for the first time they came face to face with missionaries on their own turf. Some of these missionaries are fellow Americans, some are native to South America and others are indigenous (tribal) brothers, but all share the same heart which is reaching the tribes with the gospel of Jesus Christ and equipping and empowering them to carry out the Great Commission.

Our group also attended church in a tribal village, which required a one hour boat ride and walking through about a mile of mud on a Sunday morning! (Apparently, there is an unspoken rule in the Amazon that if there is heavy rain, church is cancelled. Our team was unaware of this though. So after slogging through the mud to reach the village, the villagers took pity on them and joined their visitors at the church! J)

Upon their return, the men relayed how the trip personally impacted them as they shared during their classes and morning services. (You can listen to their accounts from January 6, 2008 at http://temple-baptist.org/. Click on pictures in the slideshow on the right for more detail.) Months later, their experiences continue to trickle down thru classes and sermons as God brings things to their minds. It’s such a joy for us to see how God has used this one trip in the hearts of this amazing group of men!

Many of our group have expressed and a desire to return to Peru after seeing the many needs. There is much that can be done to support and empower the missionaries to focus on their work. One example is construction at the Amazon Focus property. You may recall the property was purchased several years ago to use as a base for missionaries and visitors. When construction is completed, it will also house AF Field Director Irma Espinoza when she is not in the more remote villages. Sadly, construction has been slow since there is no permanent presence there to supervise or coordinate activities. Because of this the property was looted last year by people scaling the surrounding walls, peeling off roofs, and taking away doors and things of that nature. As you may imagine, without doors and roofs there is not much security!

Upon their return, there was a great excitement about partnering with the missionaries in Peru, and a desire to return this summer. Several of the men from the previous trip have been unable to return this time around, but in the interim we have picked up two “newbies”: our senior pastor and a graduate student from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) who also speaks Spanish. This trip will run August 1-10, and is quickly approaching, so we would ask you to be in prayer—both for the trip, and for Heather and the boys who will be staying at home.

More feedback

I wanted to share this bit of feedback as well, because this is a huge part of what Amazon Focus does: Encouraging churches to commit to partnering with tribal churches.
I am so pumped about the possibility of North American churches partnering with the Amazonian tribal churches. I believe that by understanding “Church-2-Church Partnerships”, the local church will begin to take ownership of missions.

This wave has really swept me up and I’m going to ride it out. I’m trying to compose ways to communicate the partnership concept. A short-term trip is an ideal environment for considering opportunities and deciding life-changing issues.

It used to be that we would get people out there short-term and ask them to consider two simple choices: Am I called to go or to send? Now as we take “decision making” people out there, and they see that the tribal church is doing the job effectively, we need to ALSO ASK if they want to PARTNER in the mission task!